As MoJo’s Nick Baumann notes: “If folks from the homeowners association had bothered to knock on May Clauer’s door, they might have avoided all this — the legal fees, the negative press attention, and the (surely large) settlement costs. But they didn’t, and they paid the price. Fred Rogers would be ashamed.”

A swift kick in the wallet pocket is too good for these swine. How about a little time in the stocks, too? If the debts pile up and their houses get seized and sold while they’re hanging around in the town square, well, perhaps they can find new homes somewhere — say, in the Army, in Afghanistan.

If they’re gonna insist on these wars the LEAST the gummint can do is take care of the poor folks who have to fight ‘em! There’s all kinds of talk about patriotism when they’re ginning up support for whatever military incursion they’ve dreamed up but that seems to go away when the thing is finally over (or even before) and it’s time to take care of those that fought it. How many of these folks lose their homes and much more while serving in the military or even worse, can’t get treatment for the PTSD, etc. they come back with? We have lots of dough for ridiculously expensive weapon systems to battle foes with Toyota pickups and AK47’s but never enough to properly treat the wounded warriors who come back.

The purpose of the war is to have corporations make money. They build expensive shit, have it blown up, and build more shit to take its place. Unlike the free market where you have to try like hell to sell shit, in this case the government buys it at a huge markup (thousand dollar toilet seats), blows it up, and buys more.

The troops are disposable to the corporate culture, just like Humvees. The only time anyone cares about the troops, who are largely what we used to call working class stiffs back when there was a working class, is when there is political capital to be made or when War, Incorporated needs some P.R.

You’re deadly accurate my friend! War is certainly good business for many. When I think back to the hysteria just after 9/11/01 I wonder if we’d had a leader who was smart and brave enough to say to the American people — “Look, the criminals who did this want us to spend zillions of our dollars and waste thousands of your lives in a vengeful war designed to bring them to justice. WE are smarter than that however. Instead we’ll quietly hunt them down while working to preserve the freedom and democracy that scares them so.” But instead we’ve done exactly what those guys wanted - and more. If Osama’s still alive he’s got to be thinking his dream has more than come true with the US involved in two wars and creating plenty of new enemies with both. It’s almost enough to make one think of the wacky conspiracy theories about Bushy and Bin Laden in cahoots…but I’m not YET that cynical. My answer is to quit caring about it and move to Italy as soon as possible….it was pretty easy to forget about most of this crap during the time we spent there this year.

5

Matt:
August 20th, 2010 at 6:10 pm

President Obama’s “last U.S. combat brigade leaves Iraq” is no better than former President Bush’s “mission accomplished” fiasco. Considering my better half is still having to deal with IED and mortar attacks on what seems like a daily basis I personally find this combat troops leave statement misleading.

My wife’s unit has a rumor page and this is what they have listed:

“I’ve heard on the news that all combat troops have left Iraq. - TRUE, BUT LIMITED - Yes, the last brigade designated as a ‘combat brigade’ has left Iraq, in accordance with the agreement with Iraq’s government. However, our Soldiers are still there. Our “Brigade Combat Team” has simply been redesignated as an “Advise and Assist Brigade”. The MOS make-up of the brigade hasn’t changed. We still have thousands of combat arms Soldiers (infantry, tankers, scouts, snipers, mortarmen, etc) along with our support Soldiers. It’s also true that other brigades are still on orders to deploy to Iraq, even after our return. The United States is not yet finished in Iraq.”

So at the end of the day my wife’s unit has been re-designated as an “Advise and Assist Brigade” — however it seems to me if it walks and quacks like a duck then surely it’s a duck and I’ll f-in guarantee that when my wife’s running the 50 cal and she starts mow’in down insurgents they’ll be hard pressed not to realize that there is no difference between an “Advise and Assist Brigade” or “Combat Brigade” because at the end of the day those are just words to make politicians look better.

6

si little:
August 20th, 2010 at 6:20 pm

thank you for the follow up. the soldiers and sailors civil relief act was to prevent this type of action. given the texas origin of this iraq fandango (both times), there is a symetry to the now reversed property seizure.

7

Charley:
August 20th, 2010 at 8:31 pm

The above comments are outstanding and concise. There are a few of us that feel this way!

Not to change the subject, but has anyone else been following the Reed Bates case in Texas? I have a hard time thinking its a good idea to ride down the middle of a 65 mph highway lane in TX (especially TX) and wonder if his case is a good one to stake our roadway rights on. LAB and Bike Texas have not taken up his cause and that has caused a lot of consternation in the cycling community.

Yeah, the shoulders in Ellis County suck. Fix the friggin shoulders, don’t throw me alongside a 70 mph eighteen-wheeler in a narrow lane. I had enough of that fun during the Santa Fe Century.

Some folks have posted comments on the League blog equating Reed Bates with Rosa Parks. When I mention that to my wife, who ain’t a honky like most of these folks, she tends to start laughing hysterically.

Khal-Contact Rep. Jim Oberstar’s office in D.C. and address your concerns. Being a chairman, he has a lot of clout on matters related to cycling our fine roads. He’s a dedicted roadie (at 70+ years of age!) and has done wonders for cycling here in MN. He rides the local Split Rock tour on a nice Trek carbon and holds his own. It’s good to have such an influencial politico on our side!

The problem is that this incident took place in a rural TX county near Dallas. This really isn’t a Federal issue. I’m not entirely surprised that the state and national cycling organizations have not jumped on this one. My worry is that one could easily end up in worse shape than ever by fighting this case in a backwater Texas court system.

Seems to me the same type of conditions/laws for when (like here in Iowa) some sort of farm implement is going down the road slowly would apply here as well.
We get the same reaction from motorists in Iowa sometimes… the old “the roads are there for the workin’ folks to drive on and such and you narrow-assed buy-sicklers are just out havin’ fun, so git outta MY way!” attitude. Heck, we get that same crap in Santa Barbara from the pool men in their pickup trucks or the fatcats in their expensive German four-doors! The ol’ “git up on the sidewalk where ya belong!” rant.
I think our Iowa Bicycle Coalition is fighting something similar on a road to the east of us. There was some talk of prohibiting cycling on a particular road due to complaints from angry motorists. Don’t know what’s up with it currently but it seems like more or less the same “right to use the road” issue we all face…but then Tejas is sort of a foreign country…so it’s even worse there..is their governor still threatening to secede from the Union? Where’s BigTex when we need him? Oh, I forgot, he’s busy hiring spin-doctors to derail investigations into his alleged doping activities! Is there a Texas Bicycle Coalition?

I look at this case the same way I looked at gay marriage when I was working that issue in Hawaii. One has to balance the need to defend and expand your rights with the concern that you are outvoted badly at the ballot box and could easily end up in deeper shit than ever if you fuck up. General Giap, with an army of guys in BF Goodrich sandals pushing overloaded bicycles, didn’t defeat the better equipped Froggies and Americans by playing his cards wrong, either.

Interestingly, I was once riding my bike past a bunch of picketing Jesoids right after the Hawaii Supreme Court overturned the ban on gay marriage. I refused their literature upon which one of Christ’s followers said to me “I hope you get hit by a car”

“…We (LAB) have remained in touch with the issue with local Dallas-area advocates, Bike Texas and our board of directors. It is instructive that none of us have chosen to get involved. I think we all regret that the way the case has been played by Bates and his advisers has precluded us from constructively intervening to help him and defend our collective rights to the road…”